


Football Boy and the Ultimate Girl

by Stormblue8



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, F/M, M/M, Modern Era, Slow Burn, but it might get faster who knows, but not the same sport as james because that's boring, but she likes sports too, football player James, jily, she also studies, sporty lily, ultimate is a real sport, ultimate player lily
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-28
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:13:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24408607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stormblue8/pseuds/Stormblue8
Summary: James and Lily meet at the end of their first year of Uni in what can only be described as one of the most embarrassing moments of Lily's young life.
Relationships: Alice Longbottom/Frank Longbottom, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Marlene McKinnon/Dorcas Meadowes, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	1. Prologue-May, 2017

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm starting a thing, this is my first jily fic although I have observed from the sidelines for years so I am aaaahhhhhh!!!!!
> 
> This is set in India because I'm Indian and honestly I'm too lazy to do any research on England or even London really. So although the characters have white as fuck names don't be surprised if they suddenly break into Hindi or ride the Delhi metro. I'll include translations for any Hindi at the bottom so that should help.
> 
> Ultimate and Frisbee are both referring to the sport of Ultimate Frisbee so the title is in fact a not very clever pun.
> 
> The prologue is, unfortunately, based on something that happened to me and I cringe to this day.

**Perhaps everything would have turned out differently if she was sober, or if there were more trees around**.

“Me? Pining? Yeah, that seems about right, on with the show!” Lily laughs. She knows she’s speaking too loudly, the grin on her face far too cheerful. But in her defense, the music is way too loud and she can barely feel her face over the throbbing sound and lights. Not to mention her entire left side hurts because some idiot (Benjy) practically tackled her during Ultimate practice today. They’re outdoors but somehow everything feels stifling and warm nonetheless.

She swallows a few times, breathing in the thick smell of smoke and sweat before taking a swig of something that is definitely not coke from a coke bottle and passing it to Frank. He eyes her suspiciously before looking at his girlfriend Alice who is staring at Lily as well. They shrug as they make eye contact. Frank takes a sip from the bottle before passing it to Gideon who has just joined their circle, panting from being on the dance floor.

“Did you see...” he gestures out of breath at two people; a guy and a girl, the guy has the girl pressed against a brick wall as they kiss so you can’t see either of their faces. But anyone who knew the guy would know who it was...

“You guys, I’m finnnneeee” Lily drunkenly drawls the last word and rolls her eyes. “I don’t care about him, it’s been months! I mean I’m happy he found someone to...maul” she winces and turns around to find her friends staring at her.

“Kya? Just because I don’t wanna see him fucking murdering her neck doesn’t mean it bothers me” She crosses her arms over her chest and gestures at Gideon to giver her the bottle. He hesitantly hands it over.

“I mean it’s normal to feel...bad when your ex finds someone new”, he winces at how dumb his words sound, even to him. Lily frowns and stares at the now empty coke bottle, wishing for more alcohol to show up.

Alice pipes up “It’s fine, she’s fine, we’re all fine, let’s dance!”

“Great idea, let’s go!” Lily grabs Gideon and heads to a spot far away from Benjy, who had started very obviously feeling up his “dance partner”, Lily visibly shudders, wondering why she still has feelings for this asshole, before turning to Gideon. “Mujhe paani chahiye” he says apologetically before hugging Lily quickly and slipping away. She sighs and turns around, looking for Alice and Frank, who she thought were right behind her. They seem to have disappeared, or more likely, not followed her right into the thick of the dance floor.

Lily shakes her head realizing her mistake too late as “ _Baby pull me closer on the backseat of your..._ ” blares straight into her skull and everyone around her takes this as an open invitation to yell and grind closer against each other. She can’t blame them though, it’s the end of the year, it’s a party, they have every right to be happy. She’s probably the only one feeling dumb and fragile and empty. Suddenly all she wants to do is crawl into bed with fries and the book she has to read for tomorrow...fuck, she has class tomorrow! Even more reason to skedaddle.

She’s caught in a group of second years, people she’s seen around campus but been too scared to actually speak to. She smiles at the one girl in the group she does know, a senior who’s in her 100 level English class for some reason, and politely jumps a few times with her before ducking out of the group.

While she walks away into the relatively cooler air further away from the speakers she thinks about how it’s been months since she’s been with anyone. And worse, how the last person she kissed was that bastard, Benjy. She shakes her head, annoyed with herself for even thinking about him, and walks off, straight into a tree.

Only it’s not a tree... It’s a guy in her batch, she can’t quite remember his name, but she knows she’d find him attractive even when she’s sober. He’s tall with broad shoulders, he looks like he plays a sport and wears nerdy round-framed glasses, which only serve to make his jawline sharper somehow, and his hair...Good god, why is it so messy? And since when has messy hair been a turn on for her? Unfortunately, he’s exactly her type. That, coupled with her general feelings of sadness and also slight horniness, is the only reason why she does what she does next.

“Do you want to make out?” she blurts out.

“I...what” he blushes and looks at her confusedly

“Do you...want to...make out...with me” she says slowly, regretting it more and more with each word.

This is obviously not the way to get someone to make out with you.

“Um...no?” he says it like a question, clearly afraid of offending the drunk girl standing, swaying, in front of him.

“Um yeah, obviously no, I mean that’s not what I...I was just testing you!” she lightly punches his (very strong) shoulder and laughs. “Just you know how these parties are, constant vigilance and all that” she winces. How did she manage to embarrass herself even more thoroughly?

“And you’re party monitor I suppose” he smirks, he seems to have regained some of his composure.

 _Ugh, he’s hot_ Lily thinks before mentally slapping herself.

“No...uh...yeah... Sometimes you gotta take some responsibility you know?” she manages to respond, retaining 0.5% of her cool.

_Pictures of Lily made my life so wonderful_

She winces, of course they had to play this stupid song.

“I guess that’s your cue, huh” he looks at her smiling even wider, clearly holding back laughter.

_Pictures of Lily helped me feel alright_

“Why yes, yes it is”. She curtsies ( _Why did she do that_ ) and flees towards the dorms, in the exact opposite direction of the dance floor.

 _I can’t believe I did that, I can’t believe I did that, ugh!_ She runs her hands through her hair wildly, startling two girls who were headed to the party. _That was just… that was quite possibly the stupidest thing I could have possibly done. And he was sooooo hot! And he must think I’m a crazy person!_ She almost wails at this last thought, which somehow cements what she’s done. All of her mistakes, everything that happened with Benjy months ago somehow feels silly and insignificant compared to the colossal ass she just made of herself. Especially because… there was something about him… Something about the way his eyes lit up when he spoke, the way he had run his hands through his hair nervously when Lily first approached him. He was definitely...interesting. Unfortunately for Lily, she had effectively ruined whatever little chances she might have had with someone like him in the first place. Great. She needs fries.

She makes it into her room with a plate of fries in record time.

After finishing her assigned reading, a book of poetry about a village near her city, she starts drowsing off to sleep. Just when she’s about to fall asleep, despite the terrible events of the night her eyes open wide, _how did he know my name_?

Does that mean… she might stand a chance? If him knowing her is somehow better than him not knowing her that is. It’s unlikely but you never know. She falls asleep with a slight smile on her lips, thinking of how she’ll track this guy down, apologize, and maybe have a fun meet-cute to talk about to her friends in a couple of weeks. Lily was still a bit of a romantic at this point in time.

She proceeds to blissfully sleep through the night, forgetting completely about the near-miss/kiss from the previous night when she wakes up.


	2. Rhizomatics and White Rum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lily and her friends are once again drunk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my fantasy of what the last day of college would have been life if it hadn't been for CoVid. Batch of 2020 feel free to cry with me.

**May 2020**

“Fuck!” Lily yells, startling Marlene and Dorcas. 

“Fucking, fuckity fuck” she continues, oblivious to Marlene’s obvious discomfort after getting startled and stabbing herself with a pen.

“What what what what?” asks Dorcas blearily, clearly in the middle of napping on her laptop keyboard.

“I...I sent in my final thesis _without_ citing my main text” Lily stares at her horrified.

“Just send it again, my God, why are you being so dramatic?” Marlene asks, rolling her eyes and rubbing the ink spot on her hand.

“It’s just...this was my last paper you know? Of my undergraduate career, it was a whole _thing!_ I sent such a nice email and everything, now I’ll have to send _another_ email, and how’s that going to look? So embarrassing!” she practically wails and starts pacing the empty classroom they’re in.

“Ah” Marlene’s expression softens and she nudges Dorcas, who seemed to be trying to go back to sleep, using her girlfriend’s arm as a pillow.

“Mhhmmmhh” she grumbled.

“Oh, you’re useless” Marlene sighs affectionately and slowly replaces her arm with her laptop sleeve before walking around the table to where Lily is standing.

“Listen, Lils, it’s fine, I know this feels like a big moment and the end of an era but sending in your paper does _not_ mean it’s the final definitive end! You worked sooo hard on this thesis but that doesn’t mean you’re done with it for good. I mean… you’re the Literature student, you know there’s no such thing as an end” she smirks at her friend, who looks decidedly less panicked.

“Oh shut up, I know I shouldn’t have lectured you on Rhizomatics so much, I’m just...I’m just gonna miss being a student I guess” she sniffles and smiles at her friend before pulling her into a quick hug and rushing to her laptop.

“Okay, I gotta send this in before the deadline, and then” she looks up with a dangerous glint in her eyes “And then we celebrate”

“Okay but you know we still have to wait for Dorcas to wake up and send in her final paper too, right?”

“Oh, I’m sure she’ll be done in a jiffy!”

**5 Hours later**

“How is she not done yet?!” Lily wails, transitioning to a whisper after Alice glares at her.

Alice, Frank, Mary, and Remus had wandered in a little after 12, expecting the rest of their friends to be wearing party hats and clutching bottles of Rum (Only white for Marlene though, thank you very much), instead Lily and Marlene were both trapped behind stacks of books working on citations while Dorcas furiously typed away.

“Trust Dorcas to leave her last paper of college till the literal last minute” whispers Remus.

“I heard that!” she looks up at him briefly, sticks out her middle finger at him then continues typing. “Besides it’s not the last minute, the deadline was at 12” she grins then goes back to typing while everyone around her groans.

“Greetings my friends and fellow party people!” Sirius walks in clutching the bottle of Rum Lily wished she had in her right now.

“What’s… what’s going on here” Sirius looks around the somber group who are decidedly _not_ celebrating.

“Shush!” Alice, the only one who seems to care about Dorcas’ academics, gestures at her. “Dorcas isn’t done with her paper yet”

“Aww, Dorky, did McGonagall finally break you?” asks Sirius, smirking, because against all odds and previous expectations he’s finished the same Political Science paper Dorcas is working on before her. 

“No, shut up, I just want it to be puurrrffeeccttt” she drawls clicking something on her laptop and spinning her chair dramatically. “Aaannnddd...sent! Let the party begin!” she grins and jumps up from her chair.

“Omg, let’s goooooo!” Lily grabs the bottle from Sirius’ hands and immediately starts chugging while everyone else starts whipping out bottles of alcohol as well.

“Can’t believe the studious Lily Evans is drinking in a classroom”, Remus tuts and shakes his head, gently pulling the bottle from her and pouring the liquor into a paper cup instead.

“Oh, shut up, I could say the same to you”, she grins holding her hand out for the cup.

“Touche”, he smiles and tips his own glass against hers before gulping it down, wincing as he does so. “Why does it always burn, ugh”

“Because, Remus my love, if alcohol tasted good on its own we’d all be drunk all the time”, Sirius comes and sits next to Lily, pecking Remus on the cheek before settling down.

“Aren’t you though?” Remus leans across Lily to cock one eyebrow at his boyfriend.

“Oh, you wound me” Sirius puts a hand on his heart as Lily giggles. He slings the other one around her shoulders and says “You should join my team, we have alcohol allll the time”.

“Oh, we’re doing teams now huh?” she laughs and pulls Sirius’ cheek, “You know how I feel about Remus though” she gets up and hugs the taller, sandy haired boy. “Now you two behave, I’m going to make Alice do shots”

“Liiilllyyyy” the blonde wails after Lily joins her, holding two filled cups in her hand.

Two hours later the boys have all left to meet up with some other friends and the girls are sprawled on the floor of the classroom laughing and talking, oblivious to the security cameras that Alice was so worried about when they started drinking.

“I’m really glad we’re all going to be in the same city”, Lily smiles and sits up on her elbows to look at her friends.

“Yes, me too! Although I’d _much_ rather live with you than these two lovebirds”, Mary groans and shoots Marlene and Dorcas, who are now openly making out, a look.

“Aw, don’t be mean Mary, you know you’re going to love living with us, we’ll have so much fun!” Dorcas breaks off from Marlene for long enough to say.

“Yeah… That’s what I’m worried about…” Mary grumbles. “Watching couples ‘have fun’ is very painful for a single person you know?

“Hey, not like I’m much better off” Lily laughs.

“I resent that!” Alice gasps, drunker than she’s ever been these four years. “Frunk...Frink...FRANK and I aren’t half as sappy as these two!”

“That’s because you’ve been together _forever,_ ” Marlene says, looking like she’s finally done trying to eat her girlfriend’s face. “You two might as well just get married, whereas we only _just_ started dating”

“Oh man, I hope this ends with the honeyman...honeymoon phase” Mary fans her face.

“Lmao that’s homophobic” Dorcas deadpans.

“Don’t be a dick”, Mary rolls her eyes.

“Homophooobbeeee”

“Ah, I’m really gonna miss this” Alice smiles and says to Lily who’s leaning on her shoulder now.

“What do you mean? We’re all still going to be in the same city!”

“I know, I know, but _this_ ” she gestures at her friends. “Just like, the small things you know? Going to the cafe and texting about lunch at the mess and stressing abut dumb assignments”.

“Yeah, I know what you mean”, Lily replies. “I was feeling like that too, what with submitting my thesis and all, but surprisingly _Marlene_ reminded me that this isn’t the _end_ end, we still have a _lot_ to look forward to.” 

Alice gasps in mock astonishment. “Marlene said something smart?”

“I know, I was shocked too, I guess we’ve rubbed off on her, we love you Mar!” Lily yells the last part across at Marlene who was showing something to Mary on her phone.

“Love you too, Lilykins”, she winks back sitting up. “Okay! Everyone listen up!” she claps her hands calling their little group to attention. “Now that college has ended it’s our solemn duty to get Lily and Mary laid in these last few days here”

“I’ve gotten laid at college” Lily gasps, offended.

“If you start talking about Benjy again, I swear to God…” Dorcas groans

“Not Benjy! I mean there was that Master’s student, and the junior, and a couple of others I can’t quite remember…”

“All nonentities” Marlene waves her hand, “you need to hook up with someone _fun_ from _our_ batch”, she says, a grin spreading across her face, “someone like hmm, James Potter for example”, she’s almost laughing now. 

“You dick”, Lily is blushing furiously, a shade of red that almost matches her long auburn hair.

“How could I _not_ bring him up?” Marlene, and the rest of the girls are openly laughing now. “This is probably the funniest college story I’ve heard, I can’t _believe_ it took you two and a half years to tell us!”

“Well, it took me two years to remember myself,” Lily says, trying to maintain some of her dignity.

“I just…” Mary is almost in hysterics, “I just can’t believe you _walked up to_ him and just _asked_ him if he wanted to make out!”

“And he said NO” Alice is laughing even harder than Mary, tears streaming down her face.

“Alice! I expected better from you”, Lily huffed.

“I’m sorry, it’s just so goddamn funny!” Alice says in between laughter.

“I would block that memory out too if I were you”, Dorcas nods sagely once everyone’s calmed down a little.

“You know what’s strange though?” Mary asks, sipping her drink, “How despite being such good friends with Frank, Sirius and Remus, you didn’t even notice him till third year”

“I guess I was busy”, Lily mutters. “Plus you know about the rivalry”

“Honestly, I don’t understand this frisbee, football hate business, you get on well enough with Frank and Sirius, and obviously darling Marl, and they play basketball!” says Alice.

“Yeah, but the football players are _such_ dicks, always talking about how frisbee isn’t a real sport. I did my best to block them out most of the time, you _know_ that” 

“But now that you _have_ remembered and _have_ noticed him”, Marlene prodded the still blushing Lily.

“Okay well, I would be lying if I said I _didn’t_ find him attractive, I mean once I remembered what happened that day I couldn’t help but notice him around campus and...boy’s hot”

“Eeeeekkkkkk” Mary shrieks, surprising Dorcas who spills some of her drink.

“Jeez woman”

“Soorrrryyyyy” Mary says, looking not at all sorry.

“You should go for it, Lily!” Alice looks at her, her warm brown eyes smiling encouragingly at her best friend. “He’s a nice enough guy”

“I could I could...It’s just…so awkward! I mean what do I even say? What if he says no again? I don’t think I could handle it tbh” she wails.

“Well then it’s his loss,” Marlene says firmly.

“Oooh! You should go talk to him _right now_ ”, Dorcas says grinning somewhat evilly. “Babe, text Sirius and see where the boys are, he’ll definitely be with them” she nudges Marlene who takes out her phone.

“Right now?” Lily gulps and looks down at her hands. She’s not sure she’s ready for that.

Alice takes her hand, clearly noting the hesitation in her eyes, “Look, babe, it’s not a declaration of love or something, it’s just one _very_ attractive person telling a _far_ less attractive person she recognizes he is attractive, it’s not a big deal!” Alice ends, somewhat drunkenly.

“I know I know, you’re right” sighs Lily.

“It’s a win-win situation really,” says Mary, thinking out loud “If he’s into you you can hook up tonight, which is yay! And if he’s not into you you’ll stop throwing him random looks and glances in the mess and finally move on from this weird ‘I haven’t dated him but I still pine after him sometimes’ thing”

“Ouch”, Marlene winces.

“I do not _pine_ ”, Lily rolls her eyes at her friend's antics. “I just… think there could be something there. Although it’s unlikely, you know? We’ve seen each other around campus often enough, if he wanted to do something he would have done it by now!”

“Ah, he’s a bigger wuss than you’d think”, says Marlene who’s good friends with Sirius and hears about James’ antics way too much.

“Ah whatever I’m drunk, how could it hurt?” Lily gets up, pulling Alice alongside her.

“Yay! Makeout trip!” Alice gets up clapping her hands and giggling very uncharacteristically.

“What’s gotten into her?” Marlene whispers to Dorcas as they pick up their things and start leaving the room.

“Oh, you know, she gets to see Frank”

“Ugh disgusting”

“I know, honey”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No translations for this chapter, the colonizers seem to have gotten to me.


	3. Beer and one armed pushups

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lily attempts to apologize to James, he tries to woo her, disaster ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From here on out the story is strictly fiction and not based on my own tragic attempt at a love life

**Still May 2020, 10 minutes later**

Remus, Sirius, James, and Frank sit on the edge of the college football field, a space that is currently occupied by drunk seniors whooping and celebrating their last papers. Somehow the campus security always turns a blind eye to this area or they genuinely don’t notice all the revelry, which is mildly concerning of course, not right now, but in general.

“What are your hopes and dreams for the year?” Frank lies flat on his back and stares at the sky while his friends exchange looks.

“Uh, Frank buddy… You literally just asked us that five minutes ago” Remus responds amusedly.

“Really?” Frank sits up again looking astonished. “Well, what are they?”

“Oh man, I love you Franky boy,” James says, looking fondly at his friend and fellow Economics major.

“Aww James, love you too, group hug!” says Frank inching towards the rest of the boys' arms outstretched.

Remus and James laugh and hug him, Sirius hangs back making faces but joins the group after Remus pulls him in.

“And they say I’m the gay one” he grumbles after Frank finally lets the others go.

Remus is about to respond when a ruckus from the center of the field draws their attention. 

“Chug chug chug chug chug” a large group chants around a tall brunette.

“Is that…” James squints at the circle.

“Marlene?” Remus finishes his thought.

“Oh no, here we go again” Sirius sighs and heads to the circle, intending to rescue his teammate from her inability to back down from a challenge. “Come on” he waves at his friends. They scramble up to join him, Frank leaning on Remus’ shoulder till he can get his bearings.

As they near the circle they notice that it’s not just Marlene but also…

“Lily Evans?” Frank stares stunned at his future roommate.

“Am I seeing things?” Remus whispers to Sirius.

“No, I think that’s really her, I’d recognize that hair anywhere” Sirius responds. “Not to mention that sweatshirt she insists on wearing in the summer”

James doesn’t say anything, gaping at the determined redhead as she chugs a Kingfisher Strong.

Lily and Marlene put down the beer bottles they were chugging from and begin arguing about who was faster. The crowd starts to dissipate around them, everyone at college is used to the two hotheads’ arguments. Mid-sentence Marlene spots the boys and drags Lily over to them grinning.

“Lads! Who do you think won?” Marlene asks, dusting off her palms.

“And why was it me?” Lily responds cheekily.

James looks at her from the corner of his eye when she says this, observing the way she’s laughingly arguing with Marlene. He’s always hyper aware around her, ever since the first time they met, even if they’ve barely ever spoken to each other. Her cheeks are flushed from the Beer and she’s panting slightly, her lips slightly open and… James blushes, stopping himself from letting his drunk brain wander further. The truth is, he would have gladly kissed her that day back in their first year. But he was sober and she was completely out of her mind drunk at the time, not to mention really upset about God knows what (he later found out it was about that asshole Benjy Fenwick, the douchebag star cutter of the frisbee team, which naturally sparked the football team’s long-standing and seemingly irrational dislike for frisbee). It hadn’t seemed right. And the next few days when he tried to make eye contact, to say something to her, to see if she’d talk to him, she had looked right through him like she didn’t even remember what happened that night.

“Ah, there you both are!” Alice says walking up to the group from the opposite end, Dorcas and Mary in tow. “We thought we lost you after you started racing near the cafeteria! Oh, hey baby” she smiles warmly and tucks her arm around Frank's waist who pecks her on the cheek before wrapping his arm around her shoulder.

“You were...racing from the caf?” James gulps.

“Oh, this is classic Lily and Marl behavior, nothing out of the ordinary” Mary laughs and nudges Lily towards James, raising her eyebrows unsubtly.

“Yeah… classic us” Lily stutters before tucking her hair behind her ears using just one thumb, suddenly conscious. 

“Summer’s looking exciting, no?” Dorcas pipes up suddenly, filling the sudden awkward gap in the conversation while all of Lily’s friends wait for her to DO something.

“Help me” Lily mouths to Alice who’s standing across the circle. If she gets the message she doesn’t let on immediately, quietly laughing about something Frank is whispering to her. 

Lily’s friends are still staring at her as if they expect her to walk up to James and ask him to make out with her. Which yes, she has done before but the last time she was  _ alone.  _ She tries to impress this message onto Mary who seems to finally get it and whispers something to Dorcas who nods and gestures at Marlene and Alice.

_ Thank God.  _ The truth was Lily wasn’t even really sure what she wanted to do with James, she definitely wouldn’t  _ mind  _ doing some of the things Marlene had been hysterically giggling about on the way here but more than that… She kind of wanted to be friends with him. Or rather, more than friends but she definitely wanted to get to know him. Somehow accidentally ignoring him for two years then becoming hyper-aware of him for the past year had raised him to this mythical status in her head. This of course, could have been avoided if she had just spoken to him earlier, but Lily was brave about literally everything else except relationships.

While Lily gets slightly lost in thought the group starts mixing up. Mary and Dorcas move to the unofficial alcohol corner with Remus to get more drinks, Frank and Lily end up sitting high on the grass embankment that serves as bleachers, while Marlene and Sirius seem to be in a one-armed pushup competition, leaving James and Lily to… stare awkwardly at the ground and avoid eye contact.

“So how were your subm…” 

“I’m sorry about the first year, I shouldn’t have done that, I’m sure you were soooo uncomfortable, especially because of course you didn’t want to? Why would you want to? Silly of me to think really, I mean not just presumptuous but almost harassy?? Really, it’s not like me at all, but that’s not an excuse, and like, forgetting about it, God, that’s awful of me. And once I remembered staring at you like a wolf and not apologizing this past year… was just  _ awful  _ of me” Lily says in one quick breath, pausing only when she’s done.

“What?” James looks stunned at Lily, who is panting again, tongue slightly poking out of her mouth.

“I’m...sorry” she winces.

James quickly recovers and smiles slightly, deciding that now the awkwardness is out of the way maybe he can  _ finally  _ make a move, “Yes, but about what?”

“Oh, you know what” Lily huffs, annoyed because his behaviour is just a  _ little  _ too cocky for her liking. “I’m not gonna fucking repeat all that”

“Oh, but you should probably say it anyway” smirks James, under the impression that she was responding well to his attempts at flirting.

Lily attempts civility one last time, “Well I guess we can just say I’m sorry for the incident and call it even?” She quirks a smile at him and offers him a hesitant hand to shake.

He stares at her for a few seconds,  _ This is going even worse than last time,  _ before finally reaching over and taking her hand. They shake once, twice, for some reason a third time (they’re both drunk) before standing still, their hands clasped for a second.

James drops her hand and runs his hands through his messy black hair (was he blushing?) before grinning cheekily and saying “you know if you  _ really  _ wanted to apologize though I’m sure there are better ways of showing it”.

“Look, man, I was drunk okay, we all say stupid things when we’re drunk” Lily’s eyes flash challengingly, she’s even more annoyed than she lets on, naturally James doesn’t notice.

“Nah, girls throw themselves all over me when they’re sober as well”, he winks saucily expecting Lily to be amused by his response. 

“Ugh, you’re such a dick, I’m not sure why I thought you were… That I could actually… Ugh,  _ forget  _ it!”Lily glares at him, hurt and anger filling her eyes before walking over to hoist Marlene up from where she was drunkenly starfishing next to an even drunker Sirius.

James is left standing, staring after her, wondering what he did wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Classic Lily and James misunderstandings. Ah, young love, can't live with it, definitely can and have lived without it. Notes and reviews are appreciated!

**Author's Note:**

> Somehow she's done. Any feedback on the characters and the fic and whatever would be hella rad. Not sure why I said rad it just seemed British, idk, scones.
> 
> Translations:  
> Kya=What  
> Mujhe paani chahiya=I want water


End file.
